


when you've got just enough bravado

by sibley (ferns)



Category: Secret Six
Genre: Canon Trans Character, Gen, Minor Injuries, this is just me giving kani the love they deserve :)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-13
Updated: 2018-12-13
Packaged: 2019-09-17 10:13:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,687
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16972659
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ferns/pseuds/sibley
Summary: Kani wasn't expecting to find a family, but one or two sure did find them. (And, well, they're not exactly complaining.)





	when you've got just enough bravado

Kani inches around the edge of the room. Thomas is asleep on the couch like he usually is during the day, but that doesn’t mean much. He’s a light sleeper especially when-

He sits up in two seconds, eyes fixed on her. “I smell blood.”

She hides her hand further behind her back. It’s pretty hopeless to lie, but she can dream, can’t she? “You’re dreaming, Catnip.”

Thomas narrows his eyes. “You’re hiding your hand, and I smell blood, and I can see the dish towel sticking out from behind your back.”

Kani rolls her eyes and pulls her hand out. It’s not even a serious cut, it just surprised her enough that she broke the knife and when it shattered some of the little bits got into the skin which is  _ gross.  _ Thomas unwraps the dish towel and inspects her hand before continuing to drag her in the direction she was heading up the stairs.

“It’s not that bad,” Kani protests. “The other day Nanaue walked by eating an entire raw goat and you barely looked up. I can deal with this as long as you don’t tell anybody  _ I  _ was the one who broke that knife.”

“Sorry, I think it’s going to be obvious.” Thomas holds her hand down and Kani jerks back a bit. “And no, you can’t  _ efficiently  _ do this yourself, since there’s some stuff  _ in  _ the cut that has to come out that won’t if you just wash it. It’s going to need stitches when I’m done poking around, and it’s hard to do that yourself if it’s on your other hand.”

Kani rolls her eyes and resigns herself to be taken care of. She also allows herself to be quite pleased with having Thomas’ bare chest so close to her body. What? A guy has needs, and sometimes those needs are satisfied by Catman’s luxurious body being close to your own body in an (unfortunately?) completely nonsexual context.

“Shit, that stings,” she hisses when he finally starts poking around, tugging out the little slivers of metal. She’s honestly a little embarrassed-her powers don’t require the constant monitoring of, say, Superman’s, but it’s been awhile since she used them without meaning to. “Ow,  _ ow,  _ you could  _ try  _ to be a little more careful!”

“Sorry,” Thomas says, sounding pretty sincere all things considered. “There’s really no good way to do this. I’m not a doctor.” Kani considers snatching her hand back, but it’s not like she didn’t already know that or like she can go to an actual hospital without being arrested. At least she’s seen Thomas patch people-meaning mainly himself-up before, so she knows he has  _ some  _ medical competency.

She tries not to flinch or make any more sounds as he gets the rest of the bits out and throws them away, which doesn’t seem like a super sanitary disposal strategy. It’s a little easier when he starts stitching her up, but it still hurts like a son of a bitch, and  _ does it even really need stitches, she was just cutting a freaking apple, come on- _

“This is why we don’t cut toward ourselves.” Thomas says as he finishes the stitching, and even though Kani’s trying to figure out if there was always such an expansive first aid kit in this bathroom or if it’s Thomas’s personal one, she’s aware that he’s serious.

She rolls her eyes. “Thanks, _ Mom.  _ Are you going to make me use safety scissors next?” He nudges her and starts putting the first aid kit away. Kani sighs. “Fine. Thanks for doing that for  _ real.” _

He doesn’t quite smile, but he does bump her shoulder again, and  _ damn  _ he really is all muscle, isn’t he? Oof. “I can’t let one of the only other sane people here get an infection, can I?”

“Guess not.” Now she just has to go downstairs and throw away the bloody apple she left on the counter before the dog can get to it.

* * *

Kani presses tightly against the wall, fingers braced in case he needs to shatter it. Jeannette’s out, Thomas is out, Lori is out, Kani himself is almost halfway not quite there yet, but Strix is still one hundred percent entirely  _ in. _

“Come on, girl,” Kani hisses, because while he knows she’s  _ more  _ than capable of handling herself, if Strix was going to watch out for him and worm her way into becoming his sister then he was damn well going to do the same for her. Thomas is already at the wheel of the car, the goddamn getaway van that they at least had the good sense to make navy and not white so it’s not  _ entirely  _ a cliche, honking the horn.

He flips him off and drums his knuckles against the doorframe and shouts a little with relief when Strix comes barreling out and crashes into his arms, scrambling alongside him as he flings himself into the back of the van and slams the door shut.

“Don’t take so long,” he scolds, and Strix shuffles her feet, squeezing her hands together as she reaches around the backseat for her tablet, which Lori hands her without a word. “I thought we were going to have to leave you behind for a second there.”

They’d found out quickly that just because Strix didn’t want to kill anymore, she wasn’t automatically ready to stop being with them in everything they did. Including the crime. She’s… Weaning herself away from it, but she’s a weird girl, and it’s not always predictable what she wants to come with them on. She insisted on joining them this time, though. Maybe because the thing they were stealing looked like an owl. Who knows.

“I couldn’t let you leave it. It’s special,” Strix says, crossing her arms as she balances her tablet carefully on her knees. When the van goes over a bump and the tablet flies up into the air, she catches it neatly and pulls it close.

“Leave what?” Kani automatically pats himself down but finds nothing missing, or at least nothing that he notices. Unless-he reaches up to touch his face, but his mask is still there, cosmetic glue holding firm. And he can feel the weight of his hammer at his hip, so that’s definitely still there, too. “I didn’t drop anything in there.”

Strix reaches into one of her pockets (Scandal insisted that they all add more pockets to their ‘work outfits’, and honestly Kani couldn’t agree more) and pulls out what she stayed to retrieve-a scrap of pale blue fabric that Kani recognizes immediately. She taps her tablet and repeats, “I couldn’t let you leave it.”

Something tickles at the back of Kani’s throat as he looks at it. He has a dozen of those ties in both colors because it’s so easy to lose them, especially when he’s working, and he knows exactly when he’s lost too many and needs to get more. Which Strix knows-they all know. On shopping runs they’ve bought more ties for him. But she went back to get it for him anyway. Even though he’s still wearing the blue mask, so it’s not like there’s nothing else for them to judge off of.

“Thanks, Mary,” he says, and it comes out maybe just a  _ little  _ more choked than he was intending. A little bit too thick for comfort. He coughs to clear his throat and takes the tie from her, sticking it in his own pocket. “That’s… That was really nice of you.”

One of the new white lenses in her mask is missing, and Kani’s heart almost bursts when he sees the corner of her eye crinkle up in a big, classic Strix-brand smile. 

Okay, so maybe having a baby sister at all is really weird, let alone one who used to be a Talon, but sometimes it’s kind of amazing, too.

* * *

Kani throws his arms up as he walks into the living room. “Who wants to go shopping with me!” When he realizes that there’s approximately two people in the room, and that only one of them is paying attention, he drops his arms. “Damn. Where’s everyone else?”

“Out,” Ralph says helpfully, turning a page in his book. Merkel, who’s only in the room because the banister he’s dangling off of is in the room, scuttles up said banister and disappears. “What are you shopping for?”

“I gotta get a new binder. I’ve still got one, but I like to have two so that if one gets completely ruined I have a backup while I wait to get a new one.” He could’ve just said “I need a new binder” and left it at that, but then Ralph would poke, because he was a poker when there was something he didn’t know about, and it would become a whole  _ thing. _

“Oh!” He smiles and his shoulders relax. “I got you a new one a few weeks ago. It’s still in the big paper bag by the door, I think. I kind of forgot to get all the stuff out because it was the day Mary tried to bring that snake that she found into the house.”

Kani blinks. “That was… Nice of you, but it requires measurements that you don’t know, so unless you somehow guessed the right size and I haven’t found a store that sells them anywhere near here anyway…”

“I checked the sizing when I washed it in case you ever needed a new one,” Ralph says like that’s a perfectly normal thing for people to do. Well, maybe it is. Kani’s still getting the hang of this whole ‘living with other people’ thing. “I do that for Mary and Lori, too.”

“...Huh.” He keeps blinking at him. It’s not  _ entirely  _ unexpected that Ralph would do something like this, considering he seems to be making it his life’s mission to make sure they never want to leave his house, which would be a lot creepier if he didn’t also do things like put stickers in the lunches he literally insists on sending with them whenever they’re working. But it’s still…

The smile slides off his face. “Did you not want me to do that? Is it because I haven’t bought you clothes before except for socks? I didn’t think you’d want me buying other stuff because you’re an adult person who can make their own clothing decisions and you don’t wear one color every day.”

“Lori doesn’t just wear black,” Kani feels the need to point out. “She wears other dark colors too.” Then he smiles and cranes his neck so that yes, he can see that right by the door there’s a big nondescript brown paper bag. There’s a bra strap hanging out of it, so there’s definitely clothes inside. “Seriously, though, where did you even get it?”

“I asked the guy who does the tailoring for the Central City Rogues to make it for me. He owed me-well, he owed Sue-a favor and he’s kind of a nice guy especially when you pay him, so he did it. Then I just had to pick it up.” The smile is back.

Kani grins at that. He’s never actually purchased from Gambi, not being from Central or Keystone and all, but he’s heard of him, and he does good work. He pats Ralph on the shoulder as he heads around the couch to get the bag and nearly jumps out of his skin when he sees that Sue has been pressed up next to him asleep the whole time. “Thanks. You’re alright for a weird old guy, y’know?”

“I’m not  _ that  _ old,” Ralph huffs as he goes back to his book. Kani doesn’t say that they have a good two decades between them, so he sure  _ feels  _ old, but he definitely thinks it.

The binder fits, of course.

* * *

 

“You remember my offer, don’t you?” Scandal asks casually one night, and Kani lowers their binoculars. It’s just the two of them on the rooftop, since Floyd and Thomas are god knows where doing something that they’ll deny is screwing each other’s brains out no matter how hard they’re pressed.

“The one you gave me the first time we met? The one about leaving this… What did you call it? A shitshow? To run with you and your team?” It’s pretty much the only offer with any weight behind it that Scandal’s ever given them, so it’s not exactly hard to narrow it down.

Scandal makes a humming sound that might be a laugh, at least if you looked at it the right way. “Yes, that’s the one. Have you given it any more thought?”

“Well… We’re kind of both on the same team now, aren’t we?” Kani lifts their binoculars back up. The job tonight is easy. They just have to make sure nobody breaks into a building for one night only. Easy job, but a lot of pay, which is the best kind of job. “Same goals and same family and all.”

At the mention of family, Scandal absently fiddles with the phone in her pocket. Kani would  _ never  _ tell her that there’s a chance love has made her a little softer, because they value their organs intact and a softer Scandal Savage is still a dangerous one, but the Scandal of urban legend wouldn’t bring her  _ phone  _ on a stakeout. The Scandal of urban legend wouldn’t have gotten married, either, but this one has.

Kani decided a long time ago that they like this Scandal a  _ lot  _ better.

“Different goals,” she corrects them finally, unsheathing and resheathing her wrist blades with a scraping sound. “Similar extended family.”

Kani inclines their head. “I definitely like the way you and your people do things,” they say after a long moment of silence. They can smell incoming rain, and pull their hat on just in time for it to start drizzling. Typical Gotham. “It’s a lot less haphazard. But I like the way we do things too. Maybe if something happens, I’ll join your side of the family, but for now I like where I am. Who I’m working with.”

“If you ever change your mind, you know how to contact me.” Scandal looks out over the Gotham City skyline. The night air was already cold, but the rain only makes it worse, and before long the light sprinkling has become a steady sheet that plasters Scandal’s hair down. She doesn’t seem to be shivering, but Kani sympathizes with her uncovered midriff as they rub their own bare arms.

A little ruefully, Kani realizes that they really should’ve added sleeves to the main part of their outfit when they added all the extra pockets. Making sure you had a place to keep all your stolen nicnacs didn’t mean much if you had already died of pneumonia, or something.

After about fifteen minutes of shivering, Kani finally breaks. “I used to stay somewhere not far from here,” they say, huddling their shoulders inward. “I know that you’re not cold and don’t feel the rain, but I’m cold as fuck, so I’m going there. You can stay or come with me, I’m sure Deadshot and Catnip have it covered, if they’ve taken their tongues out of each other’s mouths by now.”

Scandal hesitates, clearly reluctant to leave her post (understandable, considering both her work ethic and their coworkers) and Kani shrugs before making their way across the slick black rooftop toward the door leading to the stairs. Even the cold air of the stairwell is at least dry, and Kani rolls their shoulders back as they head downward, picking the fabric of their clothing off their skin with a shudder.

They think about what they said. And about Scandal’s offer. It’s not like they’ve never considered it before, tonight certainly wasn’t the first time. Maybe Kani abandoning Scandal to the rainy night was enough to convince her that Scandal doesn’t have what it takes to be with her own little family, anyway. 

Kani smiles, a little, even if they’re not sure why. Oh, well. At least they’ll always have some people looking out for them.

They could definitely get used to that.

**Author's Note:**

> Scandal to Kani as their friends/coworkers/mutual annoyances have sex on a building in the background: So. My previous job offer. Thoughts?


End file.
